


oh my god, they were platonic co-parents

by mikaylamazing



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, Baby Jack Kline, Domestic Fluff, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29473026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikaylamazing/pseuds/mikaylamazing
Summary: Dean and Cas become accidental co-parents who then accidentally fall in love. Jack is their sweet baby boy.
Relationships: Castiel & Jack Kline, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Jack Kline & Dean Winchester
Comments: 71
Kudos: 406





	oh my god, they were platonic co-parents

**Author's Note:**

> happy valentine's day and happy destiel wedding!

Cas awakens to hands on his shoulder. They shake him, gentle at first and then more insistent, which is the only thing that clears the fog from his brain. He thinks of worst case scenarios like earthquakes and fires and serial killers before the words being said to him finally register. 

“Dad, it’s time to get up! You promised,” Jack’s voice pleads, little hands jostling Cas a little more. He’s seconds away from climbing up and jumping on the bed if past experience is anything to go by. Cas glances at the clock on his bedside table, squinting at the glowing numbers until he can read them, a silent yawn escaping his mouth. 

“It’s not even 7:30 yet. And it’s Dean’s day off. We should try to be quiet until he wakes up,” Cas whispers, convinced he’s going to get himself at least another hour of sleep until he hears his bedroom door creak slightly. 

And Dean’s there, standing in the doorway, hair disheveled and eyes only a little more open and focused than Cas’s.

“He got me first. I can’t save you,” he mumbles through his own yawn, leaning against the doorframe and looking at them with far too much fondness for someone awake at 7 am on a Sunday. That look has always made Cas feel a little exposed, but especially in moments like this when he has his guard down. Cas takes that moment to turn to Jack instead.

“Jack, that isn’t nice. You know Dean needs his sleep,” Cas tells him lightly, Jack’s head dipping down slightly as his cheeks redden. But both he and Cas don’t feel guilty for long, Dean walking across the room with long strides, sitting at the edge of Cas’s bed and enveloping Jack in his arms.

“Hey, it’s fine,” he assures Jack, swaying him gently from side to side, “Seriously.” That part is said to Cas, soft green eyes piercing through him in a way that he should be immune to by now. He still has to actively stop himself from shuddering at it. 

Dean and Cas have known each other for years now, and have lived together for nearly just as long, though Cas would’ve never planned it that way. 

It started when Cas found himself in a bit of a financial bind after adopting Jack, having accrued more legal fees than even the highest end of his predictions could have imagined. The debt had racked up over the course of a year or so, beginning months before he had even met Jack for the first time. All of it had seemed so insignificant when he held Jack in his arms, small and defenseless and unable to do much more than cry, occasionally reaching out to Cas with a tiny, dimpled hand, little fingers wrapping around Cas’s thumb. He’d spent more than just the occasional night with happy tears in his eyes, thinking about what it would be like to finally bring him home. 

The money issue didn’t really set in until it was stacked atop monthly daycare bills and baby supply runs. He’d picked up extra hours at the office to try to bridge the gap a little faster, but going even longer without seeing his son had only managed to make him feel worse. 

So he very reluctantly started looking for a roommate. He hadn’t wanted just  _ anyone  _ living with him and his infant son. It was a difficult position to be in, and Cas hadn’t personally known anyone looking for a place to live. He couldn’t afford to do any real background checks and so when all was said and done, Cas had taken a complete chance on Dean, not knowing what kind of man he was inviting into his house.

It had been hard trying to find someone willing to live with a single dad and a baby, but the cheap rent had been nearly impossible for Dean to pass up. He’d been between jobs at the time and was struggling to live off of his admittedly small savings account. 

Cas had been wary, but not for long, as Dean soon opened up about how he’d practically raised his younger brother when he was only a child himself, and that he would be more than willing to take care of Jack for a few hours a day until he found a new job. ‘A few hours’ had quickly turned into a complete daycare replacement, Cas waiving his rent completely as payment. 

It’s been five years since then. Cas is working in a different office and Dean has a full-time job and Jack’s in school, and they’ve all grown strangely entangled in each other’s lives, to the point where it feels like Dean might never leave. 

A couple years back, Cas had brought it up.

_ “So, you’ve been living here a while,”  _ he’d said, not knowing how to bring up the topic without sounding like he’d been dwelling on it for months, which he had. Dean’s eyes had widened immediately.

_ “Shit, you’re right. I always meant to talk to you about pitching in more for rent since I got hired, but we’re so busy all the time, I guess it just slipped my mind,” _ Dean rambled, more and more guilt creeping into his voice as his words blended together. Cas had needed a moment to catch his breath after the unexpected 180 in the conversation. 

_ “Rent? No, this isn’t about that. Rent’s fine. I just meant… I thought you’d be thinking about, I don’t know… moving out?”  _ Cas struggled through his thoughts. The look on Dean’s face only proved that they were still having two different conversations.

_ “Why would I do that? Wait, do you  _ want _ me to move out?” _

_ “No, no! I just… I guess I thought you would want to move on with your own life. We’re not getting any younger and I know you were someone before you lived with us. I guess I just don’t want you to feel trapped here.”  _

Looking back on the conversation, Cas can see how they were both unbelievably insecure about where they stood in each other’s lives, but Cas doesn’t think that’s his fault. People had the tendency to make themselves temporary fixtures in his life, and he’d merely grown to expect the same from Dean. Cas was just his roommate after all.

_ “I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a crazy person, but you and Jack kind of  _ are  _ my life now. Yeah, there was stuff I used to do that I don’t anymore now that I’m here, but it was mostly getting blackout drunk on Wednesday afternoons. Can’t say I really miss that; not the way I’d miss you guys.”  _

Cas had been shocked speechless by the declaration, unsure of how to even begin to respond when Dean had continued. 

_ “Besides, I can’t just leave. Jack wouldn’t get it. I couldn’t do that to him.”  _ And Dean was absolutely right, but at the time, Cas hadn’t been sure if Dean knew what a big commitment he was making. 

Dean had done nearly as much as Cas had to raise Jack, and the fact that Dean and Jack were attached to each other was undeniable. It’s even more obvious now that Jack is older. He talks about them at school even though there’s no word to describe what they are.

They both help Jack with his homework and tuck him into bed at night and comfort him when he has nightmares, yet Cas is still terrified to call them anything more than roommates, even though he knows Dean would call him ridiculous for that. 

“Well, I don’t think it would be very responsible to go shopping on an empty stomach,” Dean announces, patting his own stomach before poking Jack’s, eliciting a high pitched shriek from the boy.

“It’s the most important meal of the day! We should have pancakes,” Jack suggests, fully aware of the fact that pancakes aren’t the healthiest breakfast option, but that Dean will agree with his suggestion nonetheless. Dean’s wide grin says it all.

“Sure thing, kiddo. Wanna help me out?” 

“Can I mix everything together?” 

“Yeah, you can make pancakes while your dad’s in the shower.”

The creases in Cas’s forehead become exaggerated at that as his eyebrows pull together in question.

“I don’t need to take a shower,” he argues, mostly because he’d like to just lie in bed for twenty more minutes instead. Dean laughs at that before guiding an excited Jack out the door, discussing the possibility of chocolate chips in the pancakes today. 

Cas sniffs himself and decides Dean may have a point. 

\---

“I want the ones that smell like candy! Or the ones with the baby animal stickers… no, wait! JoJo Siwa,” Jack says, barely containing his excitement as he holds three boxes of Valentine’s Day cards against his chest, still scanning the shelves for even more options. 

“Think on it a little longer, buddy. I’m gonna go check out the next aisle,” Dean responds, already making his way to the well-stocked Valentine’s Day candy display. 

“One bag,” Cas asserts. He has to when Dean’s eyes gloss over like that, or they’ll end up leaving with a whole shelf’s worth of chocolate and high fructose corn syrup. 

“You’re not the boss of me.” Dean sticks out his tongue like a petulant child. Unsurprisingly, Jack copies him exactly. 

“You’re being a bad influence,” Cas says, only half serious because despite it being aimed at him, it’s still unbelievably cute. 

“We want candy. Right, Jack?” Dean asks, distracting him from his continued search for the right cards. He turns to face them almost instantly. 

“Candy…” Jack muses, his eyes cartoonishly wide as he contemplates the idea. 

“Dean-”

“Fine, fine. One bag,” he concedes, rounding the corner and disappearing into the next aisle. 

Cas helps Jack decide which cards to get by eliminating one at a time until he’s left with one final option. It’s an almost logical assessment, which Dean has always found hilarious about them.  _ “He’s a kid, Cas. Logic doesn’t work on them,”  _ he’d said. But because he’s  _ Cas’s _ kid, the logic does work, and he eventually decides on the JoJo Siwa cards ‘because she’s his favorite’. Cas thinks that’s pretty solid reasoning. 

When they make their way to Dean, they nearly run into him with their shopping cart as they veer around opposite corners. Cas laughs.

“C’mon, man. Are you trying to kill me?” he asks, which only makes Jack join in on the laughter. Despite this, Dean approaches him with two plastic bags in hand.

“Okay, Jack. Important question: Reese’s or Hershey kisses?” he asks, holding up both for Jack to examine. This decision doesn’t take nearly as long. 

“Kisses!” he says, the enthusiasm nearly swallowing him whole. He punctuates his choice by blowing a kiss to Dean, who catches it despite his full hands. Cas smiles even as he considers breaking his own rule for the sake of peanut butter, thinking about it as they move to the next aisle. 

“We can put peanut butter in the brownies,” Dean says, like he’s reading his mind right now. It’s something that happens quite frequently and Cas would be lying if he said it didn’t freak him out a little. Cas shakes his head.

“Public school. Peanut allergies,” he says, dismissing the idea, even if it does sound like one of Dean’s better ideas. 

“Well then I guess we’ll have to make some just for us,” Dean decides, elbowing Cas’s side. Cas has the mind to hate himself for feeling so cared for with nothing but a hypothetical pan of brownies. He’s always been a little hopeless when it comes to love, but he continues to reach new lows every day since meeting Dean. 

“Speaking of,” Dean says, interrupting his thoughts, thankfully, “We’re gonna need more peanut butter if we’re putting it in brownies. You guys get cereal, and I’ll be right back.” He squeezes Cas’s arm as if to assure him that he’ll return, sweeping his thumb across his skin once before he goes in the opposite direction. 

Cas ignores the way his heart trips over itself, far too similar to the way it felt back when they first met. Cas really hadn’t known how to contend with a hot guy who was also unbelievably empathetic and sweet. He honestly doesn’t think it’s fair for someone to have all those traits at once. 

He’s way too old to still have a crush this embarrassing. 

He lets Jack pick out cereals, watching him throw a couple bright-colored boxes into the cart, Cas grabbing a can of oatmeal afterward which makes Jack’s face scrunch up in distaste. 

“It’s so you can grow up big and strong,” Cas counters, adding it to the cart as well. 

“Like Dean!” 

“What about me?” Cas asks, exaggerated with fake indignation. Jack laughs at that and Cas pretends to be mad, crossing his arms across his chest which only makes Jack laugh more. 

“Your son is so sweet.” 

It takes Cas a few moments to realize that the statement is directed at him; that a woman is looking at him and speaking to him and he’s expected to respond in some way. Before he can even remember the words ‘thank you,’ someone else is speaking for him.

“Isn’t he?” Dean asks rhetorically, throwing the arm that isn’t holding a jar of peanut butter around Cas’s shoulders, shaking him just a little as he smiles at the woman with full teeth. The woman smiles back in a way that implies a forced politeness. It’s a face Cas has seen before, but it doesn’t make sense to him in the given context. Before he can think about it for too long, Jack interjects, “Candy is sweet because of sugar.”

“Sure is,” Dean responds easily, adding the peanut butter to their plethora of sweets and steadfastly ignoring the woman as if their interaction hadn’t even happened. She walks away without another word. Cas catches up and listens to Jack explain to Dean about how peanut butter is made. 

\---

“Who has a party on a Monday? That’s just wrong,” Dean says, cutting the brownies into even squares and sweeping the crumbs onto a plate. 

“That’s when Valentine’s Day is,” Cas answers with the obvious. He looks up from the frosting he’s mixing to see Dean roll his eyes.

“Still seems kinda dumb. Who wants a party followed up by four more days of school?”

“Are you really that upset? You  _ are  _ getting brownies out of this.”

Dean mocks him with a stupid voice before his eyes brighten in a way Cas knows is dangerous. Dean sticks his finger in the bowl of pink frosting and drags it across Cas’s cheek. Cas actually gasps. 

“You’re a child,” Cas says, still in a mild state of shock as he considers looking for their misplaced paper towel roll. 

“So? What are you gonna do about it?”

The challenging look on Dean’s face really makes Cas want to kiss him, just to  _ show him  _ what he’s gonna do about it. Instead, he retaliates with a slightly bigger dollop of frosting, ready to wage a war until Jack walks back in, sparkly pens in hand. They manage to clean off their faces before Jack can get any ideas of his own. 

Jack picks out which cards he wants to give to his classmates, writing their names in various colors and signing each one with ‘Jack ♡’. Dean and Cas help him decorate the brownies with little frosting hearts and flowers. 

Jack yawns as he finishes the last two cards, wiping his eye with his sleeve before they put the brownies in a carrying container and retreat to his room. He brushes his teeth and changes into his PJs. He’s asleep the second his head hits the pillow.

“I’m so glad I don’t have to go to work tomorrow. Or the next day,” Cas sighs as he and Dean collapse on the couch in unison, Dean’s arm automatically moving behind Cas. Not on him, but so close. 

“Lucky you. Now I can force you to watch movies with me,” Dean says. He reaches for the remote sitting atop the coffee table, all while never moving his other arm. 

“ _ Movie _ , singular. Maybe. I still have to wake up early to take Jack to school.”

“I’ll go with you. We can get breakfast after we drop him off. My shift doesn’t start til noon.” 

Cas loves the sound of that, nodding his head and unconsciously moving closer to Dean as he does so. 

“I want pancakes,” Dean says in a soft, far-away voice that sounds the way Cas feels. But the words catch his attention. 

“We just had pancakes this morning.”

“Yeah, so? Are you a pancake cop?”

“Not at all. Please partake in sweet, bready breakfast foods to your heart’s content.” 

“Well, that’s rich coming from the guy who literally ate half a loaf of bread in one sitting and called it a meal.”

“That was years ago and I was hungry. We’ve been over this before.”

“I can’t believe I’ve been here this long and I haven’t taught you how to cook anything remotely decent.”

“You love cooking, so why would you need to teach me? Do you plan on leaving me?” 

It comes out without thinking, Cas’s brain having shut down at the end of a long day. He almost changes his words to say ‘leave us’ instead, hoping it’ll break the tension that’s fallen over them when Dean says “Definitely not,” in the softest voice Cas has heard from him since Jack was a baby. Dean clears his throat quickly and stands up from the couch. 

“It’s a crime that we haven’t eaten any of these brownies yet, I’m gonna go get some for us,” he says, leaving Cas to feel really stupid for not saying anything when that was very clearly a  _ moment.  _ He doesn’t understand his own brain enough to figure out why being honest with Dean is so hard when it’s become increasingly likely that Dean feels the same way about him. 

When Dean returns, it’s with two peanut butter swirl brownies, one carefully frosted. When Dean presents it to him, Cas can feel his whole body threatening to disintegrate under the weight of his feelings. It’s a shakily-piped heart with even shakier writing that says

“I love you?” Cas says out loud, mild disbelief coloring his voice. His eyes shoot up to see Dean looking like he’s about to pass out, placing the brownies on the coffee table with trembling hands.

“I’ve been trying to say it for a long time, but every time I’d try it would just get a little… stuck? It was definitely stupid to feel so scared because you’re the nicest person in the whole world and I know you would never kick me out or stop speaking to me or whatever other dumb thing I was thinking. But I’ve never felt like this about anyone in my entire life and so I don’t know what I would do if you didn’t feel the same, but I’m pretty sure you do, which is why I made this, but I still-” 

And maybe it’s rude to cut someone off like this, but Cas can’t stand the thought of Dean talking himself out of this before he’s even gotten a chance to respond. So he kisses him with just enough force for it to feel a little awkward, unsurprising to Cas when he thinks about just how long it’s been since he’s kissed someone. Dean did a real number on his love life. 

‘I love you's' are repeated for at least the next ten minutes, every one sounding a little different as the realization continues to set in, and the words feel more comfortable in their mouths. 

They don’t end up watching a movie, but they fall asleep in the same bed after hours of talking about all of the stupid things they’ve thought and failed to say since meeting each other, Dean’s arms wrapped around him and holding him close. 

When they wake up, it’s to Jack’s voice once again, telling them they slept in and only have ten minutes to get ready before they need to leave. He doesn’t comment or ask questions about why Dean isn’t in his own room, too fixated on his valentines to care about anything else. 

They drop him off with matching smiles on their faces, watching as he meets up with his friends and disappears further into the school. 

When they get breakfast, Dean orders pancakes, holding Cas’s hand across the table the entire time. 

  
  



End file.
